Lt Col (ret.) Wendy Rogers was interviewed on Flagstaff’s KAFF Monday morning discussing her campaign for Congress as well as a handful of issues.

http://chirb.it/NOn7qd

During the interview, she explained how she covers Arizona’s First Congressional District which is one third the size of Arizona. Rogers uses her airplane and a collapsible bicycle which she packs in the fuselage of her Cherokee 180 single-engine plane. She covers about 100 homes a day when she’s out in the field.

Col Rogers also discussed the most important issues which she hears first-hand from her encounters with voters. Issues include the Second Amendment, border security, jobs, the economy and most prominently, national security.

When asked about her career, Col Rogers went into detail about her 20 years of service flying C-141’s as one of the first women pilots in the US Air Force. Both she and her husband Hal each served 20 years as career officers.

She also described how US military members are treated by host countries depending on who the Commander in Chief is.

When asked what she would like to accomplish and achieve in the US Congress, her most important priority would be to protect and defend the United States. She swore an oath to the US Constitution during her military service and would like to serve the country again in the US Congress.

Col Rogers also noted that she would like to serve on the House Intelligence Committee, an assignment she says she is aptly qualified for and that decides matters of life and death.

She also would like to serve on the Resources Committee because of Arizona’s abundance of beauty and natural resources.

When asked about her position on raising the minimum wage, she replied, “I am not a believer in the government telling business what to pay its employees.”

Sunday’s horrific terrorist attack in Orlando also came up during the interview. When asked about a “fix” for recurring attacks like this, Rogers quickly responded, “We are at war and until you identify the threat and are willing to address it as it is, which is an infiltrated threat in our country, then we have no ground to prosecute that strategy and defeat the enemy.” She said President Obama has not recognized the threat. She also said it is not an issue of gun control or discrimination against the LGBT community. She identified the real problem as the perpetrator and not the tool (guns).

The conversation concluded as Col Rogers described the beauty and blessings of her daughter’s wedding at Snowbowl over the weekend.

Both Wendy and Hal have two children and three grandchildren. They have a retirement home in Flagstaff and have been married for 38 years.

Col Rogers is the only woman running in a field of seven men.

Primary Election Day is Tuesday, August 30, 2016. You can read more about Wendy Rogers at WendyRogers.org.

Here is a great assessment by my political consultant peer Sean Noble regarding the current state of the Republican Party and what is driving the Trump faction in the GOP.

Sean recently appeared on Carey Peña Reports which is available on iTunes podcasts.

Although the interview was recorded on this last Tuesday with the prediction that Marco Rubio would mount a comeback in Florida, the rest of the assessment is spot on when it comes to what is driving the frenzy around Trump and how it will redefine or even destroy the Republican party.

I agree with Sean on this assessment and its one of the reasons why I cannot sit back and allow the GOP to be hijacked out of emotion and without a good dose of critical thinking.

Another point I agree with Sean on is that it is only about 20-25% of the population that is driving the Trump movement – a very loud and angry vocal minority.

PHOENIX – Let’s meet former Arizona House candidate, Aaron Borders, who ran in Legislative District 29 in Phoenix’s West Valley. After nearly two years of campaigning in an uphill battle, Aaron came surprisingly close to winning in an area where he was not supposed to even come close. Zeyna Aouad, the AZGOP’s Voter Data Director, interviewed Aaron to learn more about how he managed to persuade so many voters in a predominately Democrat area to vote for a Republican.

Aaron’s district is located on the west side of Phoenix, one which has consistently elected Democrats to the House. On November 4th, the election results showed that Democrats would keep the two seats; however, the race this time was much closer than expected. This should be very concerning to Democrats, and it signals they’re losing their traditional stronghold there. In this district with only 20 percent of the voters registered as Republican, Aaron earned 30 percent of the vote. That means he not only had the expected Republican support but was tremendously appealing to independent voters. Unfortunately, he was bested by the next highest vote getter, the Democrat who received 34 percent of the vote even though Democrats make up 38 percent of the electorate in the district.

So not only did the Democrat underperform miserably, Aaron overperformed by a 50 percent margin. Were it not for such a lopsided district, Aaron’s efforts would have rewarded him with a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives.

Aaron said his strategy was simple: he started early. “We started this race exactly two years ago on January 17, 2013 — we went to PTA’s in the district, to non-political community events, met the leaders in the community and got deeper involved in basic community activities.” He also mentioned that“apolitical” people in the community were used to politicians talking their ears off with false promises. “What we did was different,” he said. “We showed up with volunteers and went to work with them, whether it was painting over vandalism or helping out at charitable events. It opened up dialogs about my candidacy across all parties, religions, and ethnic groups. It gave me a special platform most candidates never have.”

For Aaron, his ability to appeal to independent voters and ethnic groups won him many votes. “We spent a lot of time in the first 6-8 months polling and finding out what the issues were. Then we picked the top 3 and came up with solutions. We then stayed away from jumping into and interjecting our opinions in every hot-button day-to-day topic and stayed focused on the 3 main issues and 3 solutions.” He also credits a strong social media presence for engaging different types of voters.

During his campaign, his team was able to knock on tens of thousands of doors. When asked what he was most proud of this election cycle, he said he was most proud of his team. “They looked past the political numbers and busted their tail and in the end in a Democrat district that has twice as many Democrats as Republicans, we lost by only a small margin. None of that could have happened without the support of the grassroots team that believed in the strategy.

Voters have not heard the last from Aaron: he’s just been elected to a two year term as 2nd Vice Chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, and now shares leadership responsibility for Maricopa County’s nearly 700,000 Republican voters.

FoxNews has posted an interview with outgoing Governor Brewer in which she assesses President Obama’s performance as a ‘failed president.’

In the interview, conducted by FoxNews correspondent William La Jeunesse, Brewer calls Obama a ‘very big disappointment’ and ‘thin-skinned.’

She recalls the January, 2012 encounter in which she and the President had words on the tarmac at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. During that confrontation, Obama voiced his objection to Brewer’s presentation of him in her book Scorpions for Breakfast. When Brewer asked Obama why the federal government continued to fail in protecting Arizona’s border, Obama rudely walked away from her. The desert dust-up video went viral and made Governor Brewer a hero with conservatives.

The interview further summarizes Brewer’s battle with the federal government and judges over SB1070 and issuing driver’s licenses to DREAMers.

When La Jeunesse brings up critics allegation of racism, Brewer responds, “Those of us born and raised in the southwest are not racists. Those people are our neighbors. We go to church with us. Their children go to school. They marry into our families. This has nothing to do with racism. The bottom line is the rule of law and what it is doing to our country.”

Brewer is also asked about states rights and her battle against Obamacare in the courts and weighs this against conservative criticism of her expansion of Obamacare’s Medicaid $2 billion program in Arizona. When confronted by La Jeunesse about the hypocrisy of taking a federal handout, she replies, “We have to have our hand out and accept those dollars because a lot of those things we’re delivering services for are mandated on the State of Arizona.”

Finally, the media clip features an assessment by long-time Arizona political journalist Howard Fischer who refers to Brewer as a “political animal.”

Wednesday, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was on the Hugh Hewitt Show with Congressman John Campbell. McCarthy and Campbell both gave a few minutes to assessing US House races across the country and began their conversation with our Arizona.

According to Majority Leader McCarthy, Arizona has three congressional races in play and likely pickups.

Top of the list is CD-1 where Andy Tobin is challenging Kirkpatrick; CD-2 where Martha McSally is coming on strong against Ron Barber and finally CD-9 where Wendy Rogers has a good chance of defeating Kyrsten Sinema in the General Election.

What this means is Republican Congressional leadership is engaged in what is happening here in Arizona. Don’t be surprised if the NRCC throws some resources – money, ads, logistic support, endorsements, etc. – in order to ensure success in winning these three congressional House seats.

Here’s the transcript from Wednesday’s Hugh Hewitt Show:

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy: Arizona-1, Kirkpatrick seat, this is an R+4, meaning it leans a Republican seat. She has been in one term within here. I think it’s a great opportunity. You’ve got Andy Tobin, they just had their primary, it just got determined. Andy is a conservative over there in the state legislature, actually was the speaker, great individual on all the tough issues. He’s led so many conservative movements there. The second is Arizona-2. This is Barber’s seat, currently R+3. Martha McSally, now Martha came last time less than 1,200 votes from winning the seat. Martha is the first female pilot in combat. She flew the A-10, remarkable woman, served our country so well. She would make such a great member. Those two in Arizona, you’ve got another one in Arizona, I’d say Arizona-9. We’ve got Wendy Rogers is our candidate again against Sinema. She’s a freshmen. This is R+1. All three of those are in play.

To ensure victory this November, let’s make sure we get out and work hard to get these fine candidates elected.

Monday’s live broadcast with Hugh Hewitt and ice cream social with local elected officials was a huge success! I’m grateful to everyone who attended or tuned-in during the three-hour show to learn more about what I want to accomplish as Arizona’s next governor.

If you missed it, click the play button or bolded “click here” text below to listen to individual segments from your favorite elected officials.

In case you missed it, Attorney General candidate Mark Brnovich appeared on KJZZ’s Here and Now with Steve Goldstein on Wednesday.

As always, Goldstein conducted an engaging interview asking Brnovich everything from why he has decided to challenge a sitting incumbent, what issues will be a priority and how a small government conservative like Brnovich would govern as Arizona’s next Attorney General.

Mark Brnovich delivered focused, consistent and principled answers to Goldstein’s questions with the underlying emphasis of restoring integrity and ethics to the office of Attorney General – just one of many reasons why Brnovich is the best individual for the job.

Below is the front page article of the July 15 Arizona Capitol Times. I want to express my appreciation to those courageous and principled County and LD Republican Committees who have already conducted votes of “censure” and/or “no confidence.”

Jan Brewer, the legislators and their crony capitalist friends that support ObamaCare and Medicaid expansion have betrayed Americans, Arizona Republicans and the Republican Party Platform. Their lack of ethics, integrity and egregious acts are motivated by only two things – greed and the lust for power – at the expense of hard working tax paying Americans.

The law was expected to cost $898 billion over the first decade when the bill was first passed, but this year the Congressional Budget Office revised that estimate to $1.85 trillion. Money that will have to be borrowed from the Chinese or printed in the backroom of the Federal Reserve. Latest polls indicate a majority of Americans are opposed to ObamaCare and Medicaid expansion with an overwhelming majority of Republicans in opposition.

During the past six months, we did everything we could to make a solid argument against ObamaCare and Medicaid expansion, we tried to reason with these people and even tried to make them see the light. Unfortunately, our lobbying efforts fell on deaf ears and without success.

During one of Ronald Reagan’s difficult political battles he said,

“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”

I’m asking all the County and LD Republican Committees to make these people feel the heat by passing public censures for their actions. They are elitists who think what they have done should be forgiven. They are mistaken. We are not going to be able to defeat all of them, but we can defeat a majority of them in the 2014 Primary Election.

You can go to “MCRC Briefs” and get examples of public censures that have already been passed. http://briefs.maricopagop.org/ Just type “censure” in the search field on the left.

Warmest regards,

A. J. LaFaro

Chairman, Maricopa County Republican Committee

P.S. Please encourage all of your PCs to keep up their daily efforts in getting petition signatures for www.urapc.org Getting ObamaCare and Medicaid expansion on the November 2014 ballot will be historic for Arizona’s grassroots conservatives.

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